Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1887-03-05

that must be done. Ye come in q good hour,
and shall see glorious show. Look round
white lords, look round" and he rolled his
one wicked eye from regiment to regiment.
"Can the stars show We such sight as thlS!
See how they shake in their wckedness, all
those who have evil in their hearts ana lear
the judgment of heaven above.
begin! beginw cried out Gagool IN her
thin, piercing voice; ''the hyenas are hungry,
they howl for food Begin! begin!
Then for moment there was intense still
ness, made horrible by o presage OF WHAT
was to come. -.
The king lifted his spear, and suddeKy
twenty thousand feet were raised as though
they belonged to one man, and brought
down with a stamp upon the earth. ms
was repeated three times causing the SOLID
ground to shake and tremble. Then from
far point of the circle solitary voice began
a wailing song of which the refrain rang
something as follows:
"What is the lot of man born Of womal|'
Back came the answer rolling out from
every throat i'll the vast company:
'Death!'
Gradually, however, the song was taken
up by company after company, till the wtfsle
armed multitude was singing it, and could
no longer follow the words, except in so far
as they appeared to represent various phases
of human passions, fears, and joys Now it
seemed to be love-song, now a majestic
swelling war-chant, and last of all death
dirge ending suddenly in one heart-breaking
wall that went echong and rolling away in
a volume of blOod-curdling sound. Again
the silence fell upon the place, and again It
was broken by the king lifting up his hand.
Instantly there was pattering OF feet, and
from out of the masses of the warriors
strange and awful figures came running to-
ward us. As they drew near we saw that
they were those of women, most of them
aged, for their white hair, Ornamented with
small bladderS taken from fish, Streamed out
behind them. Their faces were painted IN
stripes Of white and yellow; down their
backs hung Snake-slins, and round their
waists ratified circlets of human bones, while
each held IN her shriveled hand small
forked wand. In all there were ten of
Them When they arrived in front of us
! they halted, and one of them pointing with
her wand toward the crOucEing figure of Ca
gool, cried out:
Mother old mother we are here"
Good! good! good!' piped out that AGED
iniquity Are your eyes keen, isanusis'
! witch doctresSes), 'ye seers in dark pla-
ces?"
! Mother, they are KEEN" :
Good! good! good! Are your ears open,
isanusis We who hear words that come not
from the tongue"
''Mother, they are OPEN"
Good! good! good! Are your senses
/ awake, isauusis- can We smell Blood can We
purge the land of the wicked ones who COM
i pass evil against the king and their neigh
bors? Are We ready to do justice of Heaven
above, We whom | have taught, who have
eaten of the bread of my wisdom and drank
of the water of my magc%
Mother, we can"
''Then go! larry not, ye vultures; see the
slayers" pointing to the OminouS group Of
executioners behind; ''make sharp their
spears; the white men from afar are hungry
to see. Co"
With a wild yell the weird party broke
away in every direction, like fragments
from a shell, and the dry bones round their
waists rafting as they ran made direct for
various points of the dense human circle. We
could not watch them all, so fixed our eyes
upon the isanusi nearest us. When she came
within few PAGES of the warriors she hall
ed and began to dance wildly, turning round
and round with an almost incredible rapidi-
tv. and shrieking out sentences such as 4
smell him, the evil-d0erY "He is near, he
who poisoned his motherW Il hear the
thoughts of him who thought evil of the
kingp
Quicker and quicker she danced, till she
lashed herself into such frenzy OF excite
ment that the foam flew in tiecks from her
gnashing laws. her eyes seemed to start from
her head. and her flesh to quiver visibly.
Suddenly she stopped dead, and stitfened all
over. like pointer dog when he scents
game. and then with outStretched wand be-
gan TO creep stealthily toward the soldier be-
fore her. 1t seemed to us that as she came
their stoicism gave ", and that tney
shrunk from her. AS ourselves 5, we fol-
lowed her movements Ith horrible fasci-
nation. Presently, still creeping and
crouching like dog, she was before them.
Then she stopped and pointed, and then
again crept on pace OF two
Suddenly the end came. With shrek
she snrung in and touched tall warrior
with the forked wand. Instantly TWO VI ilI
comrades. those standing Immediately next
to him. seized the doomed man, each Dy o,s
arm, and advanced with him tOWaru tN
king.
He did not resist, but we saw that III
dragged his limbs as though they were para
lyzed, and his fingers, from which the spea
had fallen, were limp as those OF man NC"
ly dead.
AS he came, two of the villainous eXecu-
tioners stepped forward to meet him. fres,
emily they met, and the executioners turned
round toward the king as though 1or oluelS
skill F' said the king
"Killp' squeaked GagOOl.
? "Killw re-echoed Scragga, with holloW
chuckle. Almost before the words were Ut
tered, the horrible deed was done. Ohe man
had driven his spear into the victims neal@
: and to make assurance doubly sure tlie
, other had dashed out his brains with MS
. great club. ~,
: "One," counted Twala, the king, IKE q
4 black Madame Defarge, as Good said' ana
the body was dragged few PAGES away anu
S stretched out.
j Hardly was this done, before another poor
4 wretch was brought up like an OK to tne
| slaughter. This time we could see, 1rcm Tue
4 leopard-skin cloak, that the man was a per
son of rank. Again the awful syllaDles